


Torn Jeans and No Socks

by thunderbird_dragon



Series: Love between Gordon Tracy and Lady Penelope [3]
Category: Thunderbirds, penandink (ships Lady Penelope and Gordon Tracy), thunderbirds are go
Genre: F/M, tiny bit of John Tracy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-17
Updated: 2018-04-17
Packaged: 2019-04-24 04:01:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,770
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14347575
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thunderbird_dragon/pseuds/thunderbird_dragon
Summary: They say opposites attract, but Gordon suddenly has cause to wonder why Penny is with him and then regrets looking that deeply.





	Torn Jeans and No Socks

**Author's Note:**

> somehow this story has never seemed to quite come together but after months of wrestling with it, I'm posting it anyways in the hope that it does what I set out for it to do. Please try to read it with an open mind to my inadequacies on this one, sorry!

                                                

He turned the hire car off the road to park beside the seawall.

Just a few yards away waves, 20ft tall, were enticed him in, he could feel their call – the turquoise light filtering through the water as they lifted in perfect curves against the late afternoon sun. But he had no time for their call, Gordon was meeting Penny for yet another of her fancy dos. No matter how beautiful the sea was this side of the country, he knew he could only take a moment to look at the azure blue waters before turning inland.

He called Penny quickly.

“Oh good, you picked up the car I chose for you. I hope you like it” Her voice warm and loving, “Sorry, but I couldn’t risk you choosing some sort of mighty pickup truck, now could I?”

He laughed softly at her tendency to overwork every little detail.

“Suppose not.” He tried to imagine her at that moment, sat on the balcony of the elegant city hotel, room service having just delivered a delicately painted bone china tea service with fresh tea.

“Now, Gordon, _please_ tell me you’ve left the torn jeans at home for this weekend? We have to go on and meet the Ambassador tomorrow.”

He grinned widely, he knew she was going to ask that. “No torn jeans - check!”

“or ghastly print shirts?”

Oh that one hurt, but still he smiled, “Okay, no print shirts - check!”

“You have packed all smart clothes?”

“Check!”

“And a dinner jacket for tonight’s dinner?”

“Check!”

She felt a pang of guilt, “Sorry darling, but just one more thing – have you got socks on?”

A moments silence before he replied with another light laugh, “Yes, I’ve got socks on for you Penny!”

“Really?” He could hear her relief. “Are they matching?”

He laughed again, this time a little more strained but he still found it funny, “Yes matching!”

Her voice insistent now. “Sensible ones, no cartoon characters or silly mottos?”

There was a longer silence, then he drew in a slow breath, “Of course, Penny, I won’t let you down, you know I won’t.” He wanted to ask her if she trusted him on this but chose not to make the moment awkward. Instead, he feigned a traffic jam on the still and quiet beach road, “Sorry Penny, I gotta go - traffic, you know?”

There was that 'something' in his voice that she picked up on it immediately, “Is everything okay, Gordon?”

He needed to answer without a split seconds pause but he failed.

“Everything’s fine, Pen, love you, see you later!” Was what she heard but it was that tiny delay before he answered that worried her. She placed her comms down thoughtfully, replaying every word of the conversation in her memory.

Suddenly intently watching the sea, Gordon was doing the same thing.

He got out from the car and sat on the seawall, looking back at the vehicle, it was so sleek, long and screamingly expensive. Sure, he would have been more comfortable in a pickup, but he wouldn’t have chosen one for this trip, he knew how important it was to Penny. He turned away from it to look back over the ocean, it was still calling his name and before he’d even noticed, he was over the seawall and walking to the edge of the surf.

What had just happened between them?

Everything he was she had asked him to leave at home and he really wasn’t sure how he felt about it. Well no, he knew he felt a little hurt, but then he started wondering why she was bothering with him if he wasn’t who she wanted him to be?

If it was just a matter of trust, then she ought to know better, he had never once let her down. No matter how highbrow the event, he’d risen to every occasion, exquisitely dressed and perfectly mannered.

She knew that!

Now he felt a little anger mixing in with his hurt.

If on the other hand, if he wasn’t what she wanted – or needed – him to be. Well, then, what were they doing together?

He accepted her as she was – totally lovely.

Didn’t she think the same of him?

He tried to halt his racing thoughts, letting his gaze drift out over the water.

Far out he could see surfers, nine or ten of them, soaring through wave faces as though flying without wings. Behind them the sun was low, reflecting bright diamonds on the water.

Oh but it looked so good.

Automatically, he checked his watch. He really didn’t have time, it was nearly 6pm and he had another 40 minutes to drive. And yet….

There were a group of surfers sat in the sand a short way up the beach, a massive driftwood fire burning in between them and a party atmosphere brewing nicely.

He’d just ask - he might be able to fit in some time in the next day or two.

“Hi, wondered if there’s anywhere here I could hire a board and stuff?”

They looked blankly at him and he suddenly realised that he looked so out of place on the beach; smart shirt with even smarter jacket, crisp slacks over expensive shoes – and the socks of course – who wears socks on a beach!

“Sorry, I just…”

“Not to worry, mate!” One of the older guys stood and pointed over to a palm tree lined car park half a mile away. “I’ve got a surf shop just up there... Though…” He looked Gordon up and down. “I’ve got to tell you mate, this really isn’t a beginner’s beach! It’s not the sort of place you want to start, trust me.”

Gordon smiled and his confidence began to come back to him. “No, I’m okay with this, I’m no beginner. It’s just I’m meeting up with my girlfriend later and wasn’t allowed to bring my own board this trip.”

“Allowed!” The surf shop guy scoffed with a hearty smile, “Allowed! You seriously need to consider changing girlfriends mate! If she’s already dictating whether or not you surf – well then you’ve got no chance!” and instantly the guy wished he hadn’t spoken. The look on Gordon’s face was direr. “Oh look mate, I shouldn’t have said anything, sorry.”

“No, no it’s okay...” And Gordon began to walk away. Not back to the car but along the water’s edge, paddling through the last lappings of each wave.

“Hey! Mate! You’re getting your nice shoes wet!”

 

 

“Penny, I just can’t. It’s against everything we’ve agreed between ourselves and against Dad’s original protocols too!” John was emphatic. The emergency locator chips were only to be initiated in a real emergency – not one perceived by one of his brother’s girlfriend, even if that girlfriend was Lady Penelope Creighton-Ward. “Look, I can try and get him on the comms, wait a minute for me.”

“NO!” Penny’s turn to be emphatic, “No, please John, he mustn’t know I’ve involved you at all. Oh please can’t you just trace him?”

John tried a different tack, “Penny, how would you feel if you wanted to have a little space and I traced you for Gordon?” She winced at that – knowing John was right. But she had already explained that she thought she’d upset Gordon somehow and the fact that it was now nearly 9pm and he was over two hours late just seemed to confirm it to her.

“What about if he was hurt somewhere?”

“Penny, you know better than that. We’ve all got an emergency transponder, he would have hit it if he was in trouble. If he’d not been able to then his life-sign indicator would have been triggered. Where ever he is, he’s fine. Look, just give him a little bit longer!”

“I can’t!” She almost shouted, “Gordon and I are expected at the embassy dinner in under half an hour! I need to find him now!”

But John’s attention was on the flashing icon to his side. Gordon!

“Hang on Penny please.” He muted her call and hit the icon. “Okay, little bro, so you’ve really pissed her off this time!” He greeted Gordon.

Gordon took a moment to understand what John had meant then answered. “Yeah well, I think - I guessed - I would. I didn’t mean to, I just…”

Instinctively, he knew that Penny would have called John who would then worry about him. Knew that John would be in that difficult position of trying to protect his brother whilst still supporting his best friend. He had warned Gordon so many times that he was walking a tightrope between success with Penny and crashing in flames – was this the night he fell?

He wasn’t sure how far he’d walked along the coast, he couldn’t see the car now, that was for sure, but thought he could still see the tiniest pin pick of light that indicated the surfers' fire maybe ten miles back. He’d stopped to swim at one point and was carrying most of his clothes and the thoroughly wet shoes. He’d thrown the socks far out to sea in anger over an hour before then spent time wondering if he could ever find them again before they caused some small but significant environmental disaster. Now, he just felt cold and miserable. He’d ruined everything. Penny would be furious with him, so much so that she’d probably never forgive him and that thought just killed him.

The silence worried John.

“Gordo, where are you? Penny wants to know, but I don’t have to tell her. I just need to know where you are and if you’re okay?”

Gordon dropped the clothing to the sand and folded his legs under him to sit down. “I’m okay. I just know she’s going to hate me now.” Then added sorrowfully, “Even more than I think she did before!”

John screwed up his eyes at that, “What? No! She doesn’t sound like she hates you, she sounds like she's worried about you.”

“Trust me, she really doesn’t like me much, I’m not what she wants!” It sounded pathetic said out loud and in the open but he didn’t retract it. Again John frowned, what the hell was actually going on here?

“Well, she sure as hell wants you at this embassy dinner – right now!”

“No, no she doesn’t want me, John. She want’s someone dressed just the right way, looking just the right way and behaving just the right way – she doesn’t want me, John, she want the perfect guy. Not me, John, not me.” Now, he really did sound pathetic, so much so that John wasn’t sure if he should commiserate with him or laugh at him! He chose a middle line.

“Knock it off Gordon, she loves you and you know it!”

“Oh she might well take me to bed but does she actually love _me_ , I mean love who _I_ am?”

John might well have rolled his eyes as he struggled to understand. “Look, Gordon, just talk to her will you, I can patch you through now? Gordon? Gordon?” But his brother was gone. Damn! John muttered as he turned back to Penny. “He’s okay Penny, I’ve just talked to him, but I'm sorry, he didn't want to talk anymore.”

Her delay in replying made him wonder if she had also cut her comms. “Can you at least tell me where he is?”

“Somewhere next to the sea I think, I could hear it in the background, but that’s all I’ve got.” And again John offered, “Sorry.”

 

Gordon walked on subconsciously, finally stopping well after midnight to curl up on the sand, his jacket wrapped around him.

 

And that was how she found him in the dawns early light.

It had been by sheer chance that she’d see the hire car, luck that she’d spoken to the same surfers around a fire of dying embers at the end of their evening and determination that kept her walking on and on to find him at dawn, still sleeping.

Initially, she was so relieved at finding him that she sat quietly beside him, watching him for a while.

Had she really been so stupid as to ignore his feelings? She'd had hours to think it over and over. She’d been controlling, manipulating and… well yes, no matter how lovely she had been about it, how sweetly she had asked, she’d been demanding. Everything had to be her way or no way. She’d expected him to attend this event or that, dress the way she expected him to, behave the way she wanted. Aggh! How could she have been that mean?

Like Gordon had before her, she watched the waves, but unlike him, they terrified her. So high, massive walls of power. She could understand their beauty but never the attraction, never how Gordon and his brothers could spend the day surfing in such monsters.

As the sky lightened, she reached out and placed her hand over his, he was cold but then she’d anticipated that.  He stirred only fractionally, so she leaned over and kissed him so very gently on the temple. This time his eyes opened and he focused on her.

“Sorry,” she spoke first, curling round him as he sat up, her arms holding him so tightly. “Truly I am.” Her voice not much more than a whisper and almost lost to the sound of the sea.

He hadn’t ignored her but to her thinking, he started with the strangest question, “Have you ever surfed?”

“Well, actually I did, back in my early teens.” She gulped at the memory, she wouldn’t tell him but she’d been scared then, like she was now, looking at the mountainous seas beside them. “I wasn’t very good, I’m afraid.”

He turned his head to look at her. “Would you like me to show you how?” It was said so softly that she found herself tilting her head to hear him. He looked so distant, like he just wasn’t there, his mind so far away.

She reached over a pulled his hair out of his eyes, “Would you like to do that?” Always answering a question with another question when doubting herself.

He nodded slowly, “Maybe. It could be something we do together.” Still the distance. “We don’t seem to do anything much together, well not the stuff I do.” He looked at her again, “Just your stuff.” There was no accusation, no anger. If there was anything at all, it was childlike and lost.

She held him in closer, “Then, yes, I’d like you to teach me how to surf.” She tried a smile and felt a wave of relief as he reflected it back at her mildly.

She was beginning to wonder if he had hypothermia, he was so quiet, and still so distant, then randomly he asked, “Sorry, I think I missed your embassy dinner?”

She smiled at him, “Its okay, I missed it too. Somehow I got the idea that finding you was more important.”

“I wasn’t sure you wanted me there, someone like me maybe. But not me. Not Gordon Cooper Tracy with no socks on.”

The guilt washed over her again, she had been right, that had been the trigger, that was what she feared she had done to him. She had to make this right again, she did want him, Gordon Tracy with no socks on, she wanted him every day, every hour, every second, why hadn’t she realised.

“Sweetie, can you come a bit closer?” And she shifted him up into her arms, his head on her shoulder. “Comfy?” He nodded to her, “Okay then, I wanted to get you lovely and close so that I could tell you how wrong you are. I want you, no matter what you wear, I swear I do, you could have a whole wardrobe of dratted print shirts, I won’t care as long as you loved me. I love you Gordon Cooper Tracy with no socks on. I love YOU! You - for the person you are, for the care you go to making sure I’m okay and have everything just the way I need it. I just love you and I really don’t care about anything else much, just you.” And she held him in even closer.

After a moment or two, he asked: “You really don’t mind my shirts?”

“Nope!”

“What about my lack of socks?”

“Nope, that’s fine too”

“What about my torn jeans?”

She smiled, nuzzling her lips into his hair, “Ah, now that’s a different matter altogether!”

He looked up at her puzzled.

“No, I far prefer you out of your jeans!”

 

 

 

 


End file.
